arXiv subjects

Francesco P. Andriulli

Publications and source records attributed to Francesco P. Andriulli.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Volume-Surface-Wire Integral Equations for EEG Source Imaging

In EEG source imaging, the precision of the imaging of the brain activity depends on the accuracy of the forward head model which is, in turn, affected by the representation of tissue conductivity, including anisotropic compartments such as the skull and white matter. We introduce an EEG source imaging framework based on a hybrid volume-surface-wire integral formulation, enabling tract-aware modeling of anisotropic white matter contributions without a full volumetric head discretization. The proposed framework is assessed on a realistic MRI-derived head anatomy, showing close agreement with FEM reference solutions while avoiding full-volume meshing and providing a natural representation of white matter fiber tracts. We then integrate this model into a real-time pipeline that couples EEG processing with immersive visualization, enabling synchronized inspection of scalp potentials, cortical sources, and white matter fiber tracts-related quantities. The results support the proposed formulation as a tract-aware alternative to canonical formulations, combining robust localization performance with interactive visualization capabilities.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2026

A Lumped-Element Electrical Model of the Human Head for Brain-Oriented Applications

In this work, we present a compact surrogate circuit for electro-quasi-static (EQS) head modeling. A three-shell geometry (brain, skull, scalp) is considered, and each layer is modeled through radial and tangential pathways, implemented as RC branches. Frequency-dependent tissue conductivity and permittivity are mapped into dispersive resistive and capacitive elements. The model is validated against a semi-analytical spherical-harmonics reference solution over multiple geometrical configurations and operating frequencies, demonstrating good agreement. Neglecting dispersion and capacitive pathways can lead to an overestimation of scalp potentials over the considered frequency range, highlighting the need for dispersive RC circuit modeling.

cs.CE↗

arXiv2026

An Explicit Higher-Order Dual Basis for a Multiplicatively Calderón Preconditioned Electric Field Integral Equation

One of the most effective means to precondition the electric field integral equation (EFIE) discretized with Rao-Wilton-Glisson (RWG) functions is the multiplicative Calderón preconditioner employing Buffa-Christiansen (BC) functions as a basis dual to the RWG basis. It results in a formulation that is free from the dense-discretization and the low-frequency breakdown. To generalize the multiplicative Calderón preconditioner from the low-order BC and RWG basis to higher orders, we utilize B-spline-based basis functions and establish the first explicit high-order dual basis. It can be regarded as a generalization of the BC functions to arbitrary polynomial degrees and constitutes a fundamental building block for other approaches that rely on a dual basis. Numerical results for the obtained preconditioner demonstrate a low and constant number of generalized minimum residual (GMRES) iterations independent of the number of unknonws and the polynomial degree for canonical and realistic perfectly electrically conducting (PEC) scatterers; a key to enable the full potential of higher-order bases.

math.NA↗

arXiv2026

A Stable, Accurate, and Well-Conditioned Time-Domain PMCHWT Formulation

This paper introduces a new boundary element formulation for transient electromagnetic scattering by homogeneous dielectric objects, based on the time-domain PMCHWT equation. To address dense-mesh breakdown, a multiplicative Calderón preconditioner constructed from a modified static electric field integral operator is employed. Large-timestep breakdown and late-time instability are simultaneously resolved through a rescaling of the Helmholtz components using quasi-Helmholtz projectors, with temporal differentiation and integration serving as the rescaling operators. This rescaling additionally balances the loop and star components in the large-timestep regime, thereby preventing loss of accuracy in the secondary quantities caused by numerical cancellation. The resulting discrete system is solved using a marching-on-in-time scheme in conjunction with iterative solvers. Numerical experiments for simply- and multiply-connected dielectric scatterers, including highly non-smooth geometries, corroborate the stability and efficiency of the proposed approach and demonstrate its ability to produce accurate derived quantities in the large-timestep regime.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2026

Spectral Filtering of 3D Integral Operators Using Modified Green's Functions

Several recent contributions have analyzed and illustrated the effectiveness of operator filtering, both in terms of regularization and compression, when handling dense matrices arising from the discretization of integral operators, e.g. the single-layer operator. Previous works have introduced different filtering strategies, ranging from Laplacian-based filters to analytically derived ones, with the goal of improving the computational efficiency of iterative and direct solvers for integral equations in the two-dimensional space, like the 2D Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE). In this work, we propose a filtering strategy based on the spectral truncation of the kernels of integral operators associated with the 3D EFIE. The approach relies on an appropriate spectral representation of the Green's function obtained via the spherical Hankel transform, which provides an analytical foundation for the proposed approach. Finally, we provide semi-analytical and numerical evidence of the impact of this filtering technique on the spectral properties of continuous integral operators and of their discretization through boundary elements, both for the static and dynamic cases.

cs.CE↗

arXiv2026

A Lumped RC Equivalent Circuit of Head Tissues for Dispersive Neuro-Electromagnetic Modeling

Accurate modeling of electric potential and current distribution in head tissues is crucial for the design and evaluation of neuro-sensing and neuro-stimulation systems operating in the sub-megahertz frequency range. Numerical methods are widely employed in electromagnetic simulations, however their computational cost can limit their applicability to rapid prototyping, real-time simulations, and circuit-level integration. In this work, we introduce a lumped RC equivalent circuit model that reproduces the electrical behavior of a canonical three-layer spherical head geometry over a frequency range up to 50 kHz. The model accounts for frequency-dependent tissue conductivity and permittivity to capture dispersive effects, employing complex conductivity in the electro-quasi-static (EQS) regime. The circuit topology uses a minimal set of impedance elements in order to represent the essential mechanisms of electric signal propagation. Validation was performed using a dipolar brain source configuration for scalp voltage peak estimation, showing close agreement with semi-analytical solutions across different skull thicknesses and dipole eccentricities. In addition, the impact of tissue dispersion and capacitive branches on the model predictions was quantitatively assessed, showing their contribution to the overall fidelity of the proposed approach.

cs.CE↗

arXiv2026

A Numerical Approach to Operator Filtering within the Adaptive Integral Method for Electromagnetic Integral Equations

Operator filtering allows for the regularization and compression of dense integral operators, effectively mitigating the memory and computational costs associated with iterative solvers. Previous works introduced filters that leverage the analytical spectral truncation of kernels for operators of the 2D Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE). In this contribution, we will demonstrate how to obtain filtered kernels in a discrete numerical form within the framework of an Adaptive Integral Method (AIM), yielding results entirely comparable to analytical filters. By operating directly on the discrete operator representations, the proposed strategy ensures a native and robust compatibility with fast solver schemes that analytical formulations often lack. The effectiveness of the proposed approach will be demonstrated through numerical results, including its application to the Calderón preconditioned EFIE.

cs.CE↗

arXiv2026

Interpreting Moment Matrix Blocks Spectra using Mutual Shadow Area

The mutual shadow area of pairs of surface regions is used for guiding the study of the spectral components and rank of their wave interaction, as captured by the corresponding moment matrix blocks. It is demonstrated that the mutual shadow area provides an asymptotically accurate predictor of the location of the singular value curve knee. This predicted knee index is shown to partition the interacting parts of the range and domain of blocks into two subspaces that can be associated with different wave phenomena: an "aperture" subspace of dimension that scales with the subdomains area (or length in 2-D) and a remainder "diffraction" subspace of dimension that scales much slower with the electrical length, depending on the geometric configuration. For interactions between open surface domains typical for the common hierarchical partitioning in most fast solvers, the latter can be attributed to the domain edges visible by its interacting counterpart. For interactions in 3-D with a small aspect angles between the source and observers, the diffraction subspace dimension is dominant in determining the rank until fairly large electrical lengths are reached. This explains the delayed asymptotic scaling of ranks and impressive fast solver performance observed in recent literature for seemingly arbitrary scatterers with no special geometric characteristics. In the extreme cases of "endfire" reduced dimensionality interactions, where the shadow area vanishes, the diffraction governs also the asymptotic rank, which translates to superior asymptotic solver performance.

math.NA↗

arXiv2025

A High-Order Discretization Scheme for Surface Integral Equations for Analyzing the Electroencephalography Forward Problem

A Nystrom-based high-order (HO) discretization scheme for surface integral equations (SIEs) for analyzing the electroencephalography (EEG) forward problem is proposed in this work. We use HO surface elements and interpolation functions for the discretization of the interfaces of the head volume and the unknowns on the elements, respectively. The advantage of this work over existing isoparametric HO discretization schemes resides in the fact that the interpolation points are different from the mesh nodes, allowing for the flexible manipulation of the order of the basis functions without regenerating the mesh of the interfaces. Moreover, the interpolation points are chosen from the quadrature rules with the same number of points on the elements simplifying the numerical computation of the surface integrals for the far-interaction case. In this contribution, we extend the implementation of the HO discretization scheme to the double-layer and the adjoint double-layer formulations, as well as to the isolated-skull-approach for the double-layer formulation and to the indirect adjoint double-layer formulation, employed to improve the solution accuracy in case of high conductivity contrast models, which requires the development of different techniques for the singularity treatment. Numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the accuracy, flexibility, and efficiency of the proposed scheme for the four SIEs for analyzing the EEG forward problem.

math.NA↗

arXiv2025

On the Late-Time Instability of MOT solution to the Time-Domain PMCHWT Equation

This paper investigates the late-time instability of marching-on-in-time solution to the time-domain PMCHWT equation. The stability analysis identifies the static solenoidal nullspace of the time-domain electric field integral operator as the primary cause of instability. Furthermore, it reveals that the instability mechanisms of the time-domain PMCHWT equation are fundamentally different from those of the time-domain electric field integral equation. In particular, the PMCHWT's instability is much more sensitive to numerical quadrature errors, and its spectral characteristics are strongly influenced by the topology and smoothness of the scatterer surface.

math.NA↗

arXiv2025

Limitations of Nyquist Criteria in the Discretization of 2D Electromagnetic Integral Equations at High Frequency: Spectral Insights into Pollution Effects

The use of boundary integral equations in modeling boundary value problems-such as elastic, acoustic, or electromagnetic ones-is well established in the literature and widespread in practical applications. These equations are typically solved numerically using boundary element methods (BEMs), which generally provide accurate and reliable solutions. When the frequency of the wave phenomenon under study increases, the discretization of the problem is typically chosen to maintain a fixed number of unknowns per wavelength. Under these conditions, the BEM over finite-dimensional subspaces of piecewise polynomial basis functions is commonly believed to provide a bounded solution accuracy. If proven, this would constitute a significant advantage of the BEM with respect to finite element and finite difference time domain methods, which, in contrast, are affected by numerical pollution. In this work, we conduct a rigorous spectral analysis of some of the most commonly used boundary integral operators and examine the impact of the BEM discretization on the solution accuracy of widely used integral equations modeling two-dimensional electromagnetic scattering from a perfectly electrically conducting cylinder. We consider both ill-conditioned and well-conditioned equations, the latter being characterized by solution operators bounded independently of frequency. Our analysis, which is capable of tracking the effects of BEM discretization on compositions and sums of different operators, reveals a form of pollution that affects, in different measures, equations of both kinds. After elucidating the mechanism by which the BEM discretization impacts accuracy, we propose a solution strategy that can cure the pollution problem thus evidenced. The defining strength of the proposed theoretical model lies in its capacity to deliver deep insight into the root causes of the phenomenon.

cs.CE↗

arXiv2024

A stabilized time-domain combined field integral equation using the quasi-Helmholtz projectors

This paper introduces a time-domain combined field integral equation for electromagnetic scattering by a perfect electric conductor. The new equation is obtained by leveraging the quasi-Helmholtz projectors, which separate both the unknown and the source fields into solenoidal and irrotational components. These two components are then appropriately rescaled to cure the solution from a loss of accuracy occurring when the time step is large. Yukawa-type integral operators of a purely imaginary wave number are also used as a Calderon preconditioner to eliminate the ill-conditioning of matrix systems. The stabilized time-domain electric and magnetic field integral equations are linearly combined in a Calderon-like fashion, then temporally discretized using an appropriate pair of trial functions, resulting in a marching-on-in-time linear system. The novel formulation is immune to spurious resonances, dense discretization breakdown, large-time step breakdown and dc instabilities stemming from non-trivial kernels. Numerical results for both simply-connected and multiply-connected scatterers corroborate the theoretical analysis.

math.NA↗

arXiv2024

On the Computation of Square Roots and Inverse Square Roots of Gram Matrices for Surface Integral Equations in Electromagnetics

Surface integral equations (SIEs)-based boundary element methods are widely used for analyzing electromagnetic scattering scenarii. However, after discretization of SIEs, the spectrum and eigenvectors of the boundary element matrices are not usually representative of the spectrum and eigenfunctions of the underlying surface integral operators, which can be problematic for methods that rely heavily on spectral properties. To address this issue, we delineate some efficient algorithms that allow for the computation of matrix square roots and inverse square roots of the Gram matrices corresponding to the discretization scheme, which can be used for revealing the spectrum of standard electromagnetic integral operators. The algorithms, which are based on properly chosen expansions of the square root and inverse square root functions, are quite effective when applied to several of the most relevant Gram matrices used for boundary element discretizations in electromagnetics. Tables containing different sets of expansion coefficients are provided along with comparative numerical experiments that evidence advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches. In addition, to demonstrate the spectrum-revealing properties of the proposed techniques, they are applied to the discretization of the problem of scattering by a sphere for which the analytic spectrum is known.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

Calderón Strategies for the Convolution Quadrature Time Domain Electric Field Integral Equation

In this work, we introduce new integral formulations based on the convolution quadrature method for the time-domain modeling of perfectly electrically conducting scatterers that overcome some of the most critical issues of the standard schemes based on the electric field integral equation (EFIE). The standard time-domain EFIE-based approaches typically yield matrices that become increasingly ill-conditioned as the time-step or the mesh discretization density increase and suffer from the well-known DC instability. This work presents solutions to these issues that are based both on new Calderón strategies and quasi-Helmholtz projectors regularizations. In addition, to ensure an efficient computation of the marching-on-in-time, the proposed schemes leverage properties of the Z-transform -- involved in the convolution quadrature discretization scheme -- when computing the stabilized operators. The two resulting formulations compare favorably with standard, well-established schemes. The properties and practical relevance of these new formulations will be showcased through relevant numerical examples that include canonical geometries and more complex structures.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

Linear-in-Complexity Computational Strategies for Modeling and Dosimetry at TeraHertz

This work presents a fast direct solver strategy allowing full-wave modeling and dosimetry at terahertz (THz) frequencies. The novel scheme leverages a preconditioned combined field integral equation together with a regularizer for its elliptic spectrum to enable its compression into a non-hierarchical skeleton, invertible in quasi-linear complexity. Numerical results will show the effectiveness of the new scheme in a realistic skin modeling scenario.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

High-order quasi-Helmholtz Projectors: Definition, Analyses, Algorithms

The accuracy of the electric field integral equation (EFIE) can be substantially improved using high-order discretizations. However, this equation suffers from ill-conditioning and deleterious numerical effects in the low-frequency regime, often jeopardizing its solution. This can be fixed using quasi-Helmholtz decompositions, in which the source and testing elements are separated into their solenoidal and non-solenoidal contributions, then rescaled in order to avoid both the low-frequency conditioning breakdown and the loss of numerical accuracy. However, standard quasi-Helmholtz decompositions require handling discretized differential operators that often worsen the mesh-refinement ill-conditioning and require the finding of the topological cycles of the geometry, which can be expensive when modeling complex scatterers, especially in high-order. This paper solves these drawbacks by presenting the first extension of the quasi-Helmholtz projectors to high-order discretizations and their application to the stabilization of the EFIE when discretized with high-order basis functions. Our strategy will not require the identification of the cycles and will provide constant condition numbers for decreasing frequencies. Theoretical considerations will be accompanied by numerical results showing the effectiveness of our method in complex scenarios.

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

On some Operator Filtering Strategies Based on Suitably Modified Green's Functions

Recent contributions showed the benefits of operator filtering for both preconditioning and fast solution strategies. While previous contributions leveraged laplacian-based filters, in this work we introduce and study a different approach leveraging the truncation of appropriately chosen spectral representations of operators' kernels. In this contribution, the technique is applied to the operators of the 2D TE- and TM-electric field integral equations (EFIE). We explore two different spectral representations for the 2D Green's function that lead to two distinct types of filtering of the EFIE operators. Numerical results corroborate the effectiveness of the newly proposed approaches, also in the Calderón preconditioned EFIE

math.NA↗

arXiv2023

On a Frequency-Stabilized Single Current Inverse Source Formulation

Several strategies are available for solving the inverse source problem in electromagnetics. Among them, many have been focusing in retrieving Love currents by solving, after regularization, for Love's electric and magnetic currents. In this work we present a dual-element discretization, analysis, and stabilization of an inverse source formulation providing Love data by solving for only one current. This results in substantial savings and allows for an effective quasi-Helmholtz projector stabilization of the resulting operator. Theoretical considerations are complemented by numerical tests showing effectiveness and efficiency of the newly proposed method.

math.NA↗